After tonight’s match with Peterborough, City remain in twentieth position with just the four sides below them, but, suddenly, relegation looks like something we should be able to forget about. City are twelve points clear of tonight’s opponents now with a far better goal difference and, with Reading having lost their sixth straight game at Bristol City tonight, we now have a buffer of ten points over them with our superior goal difference being worth another point.
Of course, thirty two points won’t keep us up and another eight game losing streak to match the one that did for Mick McCarthy in the autumn would resurrect all of the relegation demons and then some. However, such was the manner of tonight’s 4-0 demolition of one of the four other teams we seemed to be locked in a battle with to avoid being one of the trio to drop out of the division in May that the notion that we will be worrying about the drop in the final throes of the season seems daft tonight.
There was a huge gap between the two teams – Peterborough looked as poor as you would expect a team averaging less than a goal a game scored and two a game conceded to be, but I was quite impressed by them back in August when they were a lot better than us for eighty minutes only for Aden Flint to rescue a point with a couple of headers.
That was the old set piece orientated Cardiff though. Watching us that night, the notion that we would soon be going on a run which broke club records for the wrong reasons looked plausible even if you never really think like that at the time as a fan. Tonight we closed to within fourteen points of the Play Off places and, although I’m certainly not expecting a Whitsun Wembley appearance, top six looks a more realistic prospect than bottom three if we could carry on the sort of form seen in our last two home matches.
Everywhere you looked there were strong performances, Cody Drameh had been okay before tonight, but here he was immense as he capped what would probably have been a man of the match performance anyway with his amazing assist for the third goal. Joel Bagan may not have been as eye catching as his fellow wing back on the right, but there was quality in nearly everything he did and he’s clearly taken a lot of confidence from his polished showing at Anfield on Sunday.
The three man midfield of Tommy Doyle, Ryan Wintle and Joe Ralls dovetailed really well with the first named looking more like a complete performer with every game, Wintle just makes us a better team, it’s as simple as that, and Ralls was on the way to becomIng the team’s heartbeat even before Sean Morrison’s injury – the team captain may not be playing currently, but he’s not forgotten as Ralls unveiled a Morrison four shirt after scoring the first goal with a finish that was almost Whittinghamesque.
Isaak Davies, of the one man press, played his first full ninety minutes for the team and Peterborough just couldn’t cope with his pace and non stop harassment of their back line in the first half especially, while Jordan Hugill helped himself to another goal and could easily have ended up with the match ball as there were three other near things from him as City we’re creating the impression that they had been saving up a season’s worth of goal threat for the one game!
I’ve not mentioned Alex Smithies and the back three, but that’s only because they had as comfortable a ninety minutes as they will have had all season. Having spent so long giving the impression that they found it impossible to achieve a shut out, they’ve now got two in two league games and tonight there was only a free kick from sub Jonson Clarke Harris from thirty yards which rippled the side netting that threatened to deny them their clean sheet.
A week ago, we played a relegation six pointer at Barnsley and it was as grim as many predicted it would be – our performance as we picked up three fortunate points offers a counterpoint to tonight and should serve as a reminder not to get too carried away by tonight, but, having watched so much dross in home matches especially this season, I’m finding it hard not to be!
After scoring in six minutes in our last home match, City we’re even quicker out of the blocks this time. Doyle with a well struck effort from twenty yards struck the far post with less than four minutes on the clock and within thirty seconds we had a goal to celebrate. Peterborough didn’t help themselves with some sloppy work out on their left hand side and Davies punished them by bursting clear, looking up and delivering a low cross to Ralls who finished crisply with a first time shot from twenty yards to record his first goal of the season.
Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson has declared himself “devastated” by the manner of his side’s defeat in such an important game, declaring that they could have been four or five goals down after twenty minutes.
Ferguson isn’t exaggerating there either – another testing dead ball delivery by Doyle saw Hugill head on to a post and then the same player nodded over from point blank range as a corner by the Man City loanee caused havoc in the visiting defence. Davies almost picked out the centre forward as well after harrying the Peterborough back line into another error, but, eventually, they began to stem the flow somewhat and start to dominate possession.
If Peterborough could have got to half time just the one goal down, there may have been a way back into the game, but they couldn’t as they fell foul to a set piece goal. Again, it was Doyle who provided the ammunition with a corner that was awkwardly punched away by Swansea loanee Steven Benda to Flint standing some fifteen yards out who showed excellent technique to take a touch and thne bury his shot low into the net past the five or six defenders stood between him and the goal.
As their manager alluded, Peterborough must have been grateful to get to half time just the two goals down, but two half time changes didn’t really alter the general direction of the game. While it was true that the visitors ended up dominating possession 69/31, this was an occasion where such figures didn’t tell the true story. Steve Morison was definitely right to say that we dominated when not in possession after the match – it’s a concept I would have struggled with beforehand, but having seen that ninety minutes, I know exactly what he meant.
There weren’t as many moments of danger for Peterborough after the break, but there were enough of them as the visitors still couldn’t live with our intensity and pace (when’s the last time anyone has been able to say that about the pace of our players and how we move the ball?).
Drameh, so impressive already, applied the coup de gras midway through the second period with Cafu like lung bursting run down the right from well inside his own half which left a couple of defenders in his wake and then, having travelled about sixty yards with the ball, he still had the calmness and quality to pick out Hugill who applied the finish Drameh’s work deserved as he got in front of his marker to turn the ball in from eight yards at the near post.
Incredibly, Drameh was at it again within minutes as he powered down the wing and crossed in similar fashion to Hugill, but this time, one of the better bits of Peterborough defending of the night saw the striker’s effort diverted over the bar.
Davies was about a yard away with a shot from twenty yards after his pace had proved too much for his opponents yet again and Doyle was not too far away with another effort similar to the one where he’d struck the woodwork earlier, but it was left to a couple of substitutes to combine for the fourth goal late on when Ng played Colwill in down the visitor’s decimated left side and his Drameh like cross was turned in once again on the near post by Uche Ikpeazu from inside the six yard box.
So, having given what I described as our best performance of the season in our previous home game, was this an improvement on the Forest showing? Well, Steve Cooper’s side won tonight at ailing Blackburn and have clearly shown their quality since our comfortable victory over them, so part of me says that putting an inferior team to the sword is not as good, but, on balance, I think better sides than Peterborough would have left Cardiff City Stadium heavily beaten tonight so, yes, it was another best of the season for me.
The trick now is to maintain the standards seen in the last three games now (yes, even the dismal game at Barnsley showed some qualities we lacked earlier in the season) – it’s not always going to be as eye catching as tonight, but if that attitude and intensity is repeated often enough, we’ll definitely finish closer to the middle of the table than the bottom of it and, if we do, then that will reflect greatly on Steve Morison and his coaching colleagues while leaving supporters enthused about what the inevitable summer rebuild will hold.
Earlier in the season, the under 23 side was the shining light at the club amid a gloomy autumn and early winter, but they’ve now become a victim of their own success as they’ve lost so many to the first team squad, while others have got themselves loans with regular football at senior level. Hence we have situations like Tuesday’s at Leckwith where there were five under 18s in a starting line up against a QPR outfit that, apparently, had just the one under eighteen lad in their squad.
Certainly, City’s team was dwarfed by their opponents and couldn’t match their strength as they brought on fifteen and sixteen year old’s as subs. It all represented the steepest of learning curves for the youngsters and credit to them for keeping the score down to 2-0 in an encounter where they hardly ever suggested they had a goal in them.
There’s been a period at the end of the first half in both Forest and Peterborough games where we didn’t touch the ball for about 5 minutes. Earlier on in the season we’d probably already be a goal down by that stage and if not those 5 minutes would have seen us concede, but we appear to have become a far more resilient team now which is as pleasing as our attacking play.
The test now is whether we can maintain these standards when we start to play tougher opposition.
Good evening Paul – Thanks as ever for your thoughts and it really was a performance to enjoy. Watching on Sky’s red button is somewhat of a disappointment as there are no replays and there is just one angle, but nevertheless the shape of the team was very evident and the pace of the attacks a joy to watch. Pace in the team at last.
There is always the shout of “yes” from me whenever we score, but last night’s third goal also had me clapping my hands in total admiration at the skill of both Drameh and Hugill for many, many seconds as this must be one of the finest goals scored by the City in many seasons. I have been pondering over whether or not our recently departed star striker would have reacted as sharply as his replacement did to receive the wing back’s excellent cross – I just doubt it.
The only blot on the copybook so to speak were the bookings that three of our lot received. I think young Doyle cannot be far from a one match suspension which will affect the energy that he has brought to the mid-field, and I do not know how many Wintle has racked up, and I think Ng is fast approaching five in total.
It is so hard, but very welcome, to accept that we now have a midfield trio of, Doyle, Wintle and Ralls that show the three commodities of pace, energy and skill that had been lacking earlier in the season. Add to that young Davies, who had an outstanding game last night, and solid performances elsewhere, this team are surely far too good for the “R” word to be contemplated.
The proverbial glass is now more than half-full and I had not anticipated that five weeks ago.
Thanks Paul.
Thoroughly enjoyed that one last night. Such a contrast with early season dross and so refreshing to actually enjoy our team playing with pace and skill.
Drameh was outstanding. The boy seemingly loves to tackle and is always looking to nick the ball and speed away at blistering pace. He was at it all night and the quality of the cross for the goal was equally good. Proper strikers finish from Hugill too!
Everyone played well, but special mention too for Isaak Davies. He just buzzed around from beginning to end and created so much havoc – must be a nightmare to play against.
Feels like a real turning point for the team and manager and be great if we can now properly pull away from the bottom over the next couple of weeks.
I know the team is mainly built on loan signings, but this style has to be the way forward which we were all craving.
Thanks for the replies, it’s great to be able to look back on a game with an almost uniformly positive perspective! DJ, as I mentioned in my piece, it was enlightening to hear Steve Morison talking about us having dominated when out of possession. I turned sixty six last weekend and have spent the sixty or so of them that I’ve been a football fan thinking that is an oxymoron, but, watching us controlling completely a game where the stats said we had thirty one per cent possession offered food for thought and I can now see exactly what our manager meant. I suppose the fact that I’ve seen us play plenty of other games (many of which we’ve won) with a possession figure around the thirty one per cent mark without feeling the same way suggests that Wednesday may be exceptional, but I also had a feeling that, despite our woeful defensive record, there was no way back for Forest once Isaak Davies had scored our second suggests there’s something different happening in the last few games.
BJA, I agree with you about the third goal – a real “out of your seat” moment As for bookings, I think we’re now into the stage of the season where someone needs to have ten bookings before they’re suspended and then it goes higher again when we reach the April and May, so I don’t think that we need to be too concerned yet about someone like Doyle missing games. That said, I don’t know if you read my reply to DJ after the Liverpool game where I posted a link to our disciplinary stats – they’re quite a bit worse than what has been the norm for us in recent years and, although I’m not advocating us becoming a soft touch, I think it is something which needs to be considered in our build up to next season.
Huw, on a personal note, it’s always great to trace a youngster’s progress right through into the senior team (sadly, I’m not getting to Under 18 games since Covid arrived, so I can’t do it any more), but Isaak Davies is someone I first saw when he was about fourteen or fifteen scoring a hat trick for the Under 16 side against Crystal Palace and ever since then I’ve thought he was someone with a chance of breaking into the first team, but I must admit to being surprised at just how well he has done so far. True, there’s an element of him being an unknown quantity which is helping him at the moment, but it’s not just that – he has pace, skill, is surprisingly strong at senior level and has an appreciation of what’s going on around him – his cross for Keifer Moore’s winner against Huddersfield showed he has the coolness to produce in pressure situations and his pass to Joe Ralls on Wednesday for his goal was so well delivered that Ralls did not need to break his stride as the ball came to him.